Road Trip 2023 Advise Austria/Switzerland/France

A snowHead

Will try to keep this as brief as possible, I am in my late 50s and new to the sport of skiing who was lucky enough to take three trips this year with my teenage son, having flown the first two trips I decided that I would like to drive our electric car (euro tunnel - Saint Gervais) it really was an easy trip that we really enjoyed doing, so for our next trip….
I am lucky enough to be able to take as much time as I like, so traveling via Eurotunnel about Boxing Day this year with a Flexi Ticket.This could be a two week or two month trip, my thinking is if we stay in a resort ( or nearby) and we like it we will stay for as long as we want to and then when we need to rest our legs we can travel to another resort I would like to start in Austria and end up in France or just stay in Austria nothing would be fixed.
Has anyone done this sort of trip and any advise to give.
We do have our own equipment so no need to rent and I would say my level is beginner to intermediate although I am capable of reds I would rather enjoy easy blues. My teenage son would be accompanying me.
Although a while away I do need to make a flexible plan, any help of any kind would be greatly appreciated.

A snowHead

Can’t help with Austria but in Switzerland you could take a look at the magic pass, currently at 399chf which offers access to high quality resorts such as Saas Fee, Crans Montana, Grimentz/Zinal and Villars/Diablerets among 50 odd other resorts on the Vaud and Valais cantons of Switzerland. Perfect for a road trip. Check out this thread https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=4957142&highlight=magic+pass#4957142

And here for details of magic pass
https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=4954356&highlight=magic+pass#4954356

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I think Crans-Montana is now a paid addition to the standard Magic Pass cost of Chf399, so extra to that cost, and only in low season days

https://www.magicpass.ch/en/pages/pass-100-cma-1716

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2 weeks is very different to 2 months in terms of budget, though a season pass will likely not be a lot more than a 2 week pass and the costs of getting there are the same, so you might as well stay longer if you can afford the extra for accommodation and food.

No matter what length of trip, it's probably best to concentrate on one area with large lift pass union.

The Salzburger Super Ski Card covers 86 resorts and does a 10 day flexi ticket, as well as a season pass version.

https://www.superskicard.com/en/superskicard.html

There is also a Snowcard Tirol Card covering 90 resorts across Tyrol & E Tyrol. I think it's only available as a season pass though.

https://snowcard.tirol.at/

Over the border in Italy, there is the Dolomiti Superski pass which cover 12 ski areas and many more individual resorts in the spectacular Italian Dolomites with versions from 1 day to a full season pass

https://www.dolomitisuperski.com/en/home

Of course if you have a full 2 months, you could do a week or so in each alpine nation, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, France, or just follow the snow, but the cost of the liftpasses might be prohibitive and accommodation might get tighter some weeks, though if you can commute by car, you should be able to find something last minute.

Also, your car will need winter tyres fitted for some alpine countries.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Shaggy39, your initial drive hit the bullseye in my opinion, StG is such a great base to travel to a lot of the great resorts & even throw to Italy.
I am about 3-4 year off being able to do what you are planning but i am looking forward to it so much.

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@Shaggy39 I have to sound a note of caution about longer trips out. We're now able to go out for 3-4 weeks and we've found that once we're settled-in, two things happen: first, things start to get more leisurely and we'll opt out of skiing more often in bad weather and do some snowshoeing instead, or just take a day off (as we've got older, we've found that we can't do more than 3 days in a row before it gets exhausting, which is no fun); and second, we find we just can't be bothered to get in the car and drive somewhere else just for a change. In the summer, yes, from the 4 Vallées we've done excursions to Italy and Berne, some with an overnight or two, but in the winter, no. This may just be us and it might be different for you, but just saying. Also, because we're in the 4 Vallées we have access to 400 Kms or so of pistes, so even over eight weeks, if we took the leisurely approach with outages for bad weather, stamina breaks, snowshoeing, perhaps some cultural visits etc. I don't think we'd exhaust the possibilities of the domaine. The mindset of someone with 55 days available is very different from if they only have one 13-day chance in the year to do their winter holiday.

The other factor to bear in mind is that 8 weeks is likely to include some school holidays, one way or another. If you've been skiing in, say, the quiet period of late January then a school week is going to feel almost unacceptably busy and perhaps just not worth the bother - so a candidate for doing something completely different, or a reason to shorten the trip so it ends the week before school holidays hit. The longest non-school-hols period is from the week after New Year week, I think, although I'm happy to be corrected. Post half-term, there seem to be more school sports activities through to Easter in some locations.

And bear in mind one-off events as well, especially University Ski Societies, FIS World Cup competitions, country/regional ski competitions, and special events like the Verbier Freeride. The first time we did 3+ weeks the resort was host to 600 French medical students one week - so when you look, try and find out if your preferred resort is hosting some major event.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@Shaggy39, not sure how much of an issue time & costs are but if you are going to do this sort of trip then 2 weeks is rather short. Much better to be looking at at least 4 weeks. Bear in mind that mid winter often means bad weather so you are likely to want to spend days in the valley rather than going out in a blizzard. Whilst starting out without any fixed itinerary has an appeal I think you might want to look at spending times based in a number of locations, a sample route might be - Austria - east Tirol / Salzburgerland say St Johann in Tirol, Dolomites / Sella Ronda say St. Ulrich / Ortisei, Switzerland - Bernese Oberland say Interlaken, France - Tarantaise say Bourg St Maurice. This would allow you to take advantage of local area ski passes, try various areas, potentially find some cheaper accommodation and be in places where you can sit out bad weather. It would also give you a pretty good overview of the alps. Everyone here will have their own favourite areas and suggestions. If you are serious about this it is probably worth buying the "Where to Ski" books https://www.wheretoskiandsnowboard.com/the-book/ . These cover practically all of the larger resorts in the alps, you would be able to make up your own mind about what appeals and what doesnt.

Do bear in mind that electric cars work a lot less well in cold temperatures, leaving such a car parked for a couple of days covered in snow in temperatures around -20 might be an issue and of course it will need proper winter tyres and potentially snow chains depending on your planned route.

After all it is free

For me, Austria.

In order to maximise bang for your buck, Austria has,

Massive numbers of resorts on the same pass, some already being the biggest interconnected areas in the world.
Free and accessible parking
Value of food/drink on the mountain
Accessibility of hundreds of resorts via quick valley roads.
Relatively easy to drive to.
Excellent ski schools.

I can't think of a downside off the top of my head

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@BobinCH, it was snowing heavily when I left Innsbruck on Saturday, snow this season has been fine on the pistes in most resorts. I’d love to do a season in Austria like the OP is planning. I think during the peak weeks I’d probably take some time off and go visit Salzburg or Munich.

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Although a lot of Austrian resorts are lower that those in France and Switzerland, the temperature also tends to be a little lower in winter as it's further from the Atlantic.

There is a consideration of how flexible you can be, based on snow conditions, if it transpires that one part of the alps is much better than the others. If you've committed to a season pass, that reduces the flexibility, whereas if you're happy to pay for lift passes as you go, then you can follow the snow (or sunshine), especially outside of peak weeks.

Although the Eurotunnel ticket will only be a fraction of the overall expenditure, I think it works out cheaper to buy single tickets than a FlexiPlus

snow reports

@Shaggy39,
Consider 'down the valley' places to stay that give driving access to multiple ski areas eg Innsbruck, Bourg St Maurice.

You know it makes sense.

@luigi, many moons ago… after a positive (lucky) taster in Aviemore my parents booked their first Ski holiday to Soll in Austria. It rained… my dad got home picked up the Inghams brochure and looked for the highest resort in there. He found Val Thorens. We never went back to Austria….

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A snowHead

A snowHead

My thoughts are, as a beginner/intermediate, your future will be much brighter with lessons, lots of them. At least at the start of the trip. Otherwise you risk cementing bad habits; and trust me, they either cost a fortune to break out of, or they put a cap on your progress. Your age is not your friend here (I know, I’m similar!)

Use at least your first week, if not two, to have the same instructor for a week so s/he can follow your progress and build teaching accordingly. Up to you to have lessons in the morning then practice as you ski free in the afternoon, or have one day on, one day off, to allow you to travel further during the day off. Though private lessons are usually only an hour or two I think, not like half day group lessons.

Enjoy, I look forward to when I can do that!

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It’s been a while since my original post, I thank you all for you guidance and opinions it really is helpful and points me in certain directions of research. Although still nothing booked the trip is very much going to happen, I will post as I get things rolling with the hope that it will help others.
Thanks

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Shaggy39, Keep a running trip report when you do do it.
I'd be tempted to get the Tirol snow card and bounce about there. Several glaciers, the whole of the zillertal valley, Ischgl kitzbuhel/Kirchberg area and so on and so on. Some folks have mention bourg but you'll need separate lift passes to access the stations in that valley.
How cool would a Tarantaise valley pass be if it was such a thing.

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I think the learning aspect makes it a bit different as some people have pointed out. Do you want to ski like an Austrian or a French person? The styles taught in those places are very different, so that could be a bit confusing if you're trying to learn.

Advice?

Book stuff which is cancellable up to the day of arrival so you can follow the weather/ avoid the crowds. If you're learning that may not be obvious. Clearly you need to have snow, but you don't want it to be rained on, and if you're learning to ride fresh snow, well you'll need some now and then. Crowds are obviously never a good thing for lots of reasons.
If you need to you can shift location on a ski day, either drive in your ski gear, or get changed in the hotel pool after skiing, having left your gear with the porters or in your car etc
Offline access to sat-nav maps is handy.
Don't be limited to massive "destination" resorts, which are full of package tourists, expensive, and heavily marketed. A car opens access to small local hills which are often a better bet.
It's not necessary to stay in the resort, which can be tiresome after a while. Look also at nearby towns.

To me, there's bog-all point of being out there and mobile unless you take advantage of that mobility.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@Shaggy39, Some very good suggestions above, but budget is a vital consideration. We did six weeks one season, followed by 12 the next on a fairly tight budget, and for this the big multi-resort passes are crucial unless you have shed-loads of money to spend on passes (three weeks in three different big French resorts will cost more than an entire season in one of the Austrian multi-resort pass areas.). We did Ski-Amade for the six weeks, staying in Flachau, with quite a few other resorts on the pass within easy driving distance. For the twelve week trip we had the Salzburger Superski pass, and stayed in cheapish apartments in five different resorts, but actually skied in over forty different resorts! Apart from moving resort days we skied every day apart from one, when we went to a spa. This sort of trip does allow you ski lovely small resorts which are "off the radar" for normal british holiday skiers, and enable crowd-free skiing even in the busy weeks.

Help!!

Road Trip 2023 Advise Austria/Switzerland/France

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